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Brooklyn Castle tells the story of I.S. 318 - an inner-city school where most students come from low-income homes - that also happens to have the most winning chess team in the country. Presented by Rooftop Films and Kickstarter

The Brooklyn Castle pre-screening chess event will feature subjects from the film playing fast-paced chess -- including competing against multiple players simultaneously -- as well as more casual games. There'll also be talented young chess players from Chess-in-the-Schools and Chess NYC on hand. If you're confident in your chess skills, please come out before the film to play or just to watch.

Filmmaker Katie Dellamaggiore will be in attendance for a Q and A following the screening. After the Q and A there is a reception for all in attendance with complimentary beverages.

THE FILMS

Brooklyn Castle (Katie Dellamaggiore | 101 min.)Brooklyn Castle tells the uplifting story of the unbelievably talented chess team at IS 318 in Williamsburg. With rankings higher than Albert Einstein and mostly from low-income and immigrant homes, this dedicated and naturally talented chess team has won over 26 national chess titles, more than any other junior high school in the US. The film focuses on five extraordinary players, Justus, Rochelle, Patrick, Pobo, and Alexis, as they experience the highs and lows of achieving their dreams.

Facing budget cuts and the threat of losing the chess after-school program, the instructors Mr. Galvin and Ms. Vicary, students, staff, family, and friends band together to help save the program. The students’ level of understanding and involvement with the budget crisis is unprecedented and unfortunately a sign of the times as childhood ignorance of real world problems fades.

Brimming with positivity and optimism, Brooklyn Castle achieves what is difficult for most documentaries; it’s inspirational without being preachy and leaves no feeling of sympathy but rather a sense of pride for everyone in the film. We laugh with them, cry with them, and praise their accomplishments and achievements as if they are our own.

Josephine and the Roach (Jonathan Langager | Los Angeles, CA)"Josephine and the Roach" is a surreal, offbeat short film about a cockroach who falls in love with the woman whose apartment he infests. They make beautiful music together, but Josephine's brutish husband stands in the way of their love.

MUSIC

Katie MullinsKatie Mullins, a Brooklyn based singer/songwriter, plays music that has been affectionately described as, "twinkly and folkish," which might be owed to the fact that she alternately plays an mbira (an African thumb piano from Zimbabwe), a baritone ukelele, and various keyboards to accompany her voice. But Mullins is a musician of widely varied experience, having lived in Berlin for six years where she worked simultaneously as an opera singer, singer in a country band, and as an actress. Ultimately, she is an artist fond of spare arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, and simple melodies, which on her debut album, Pastoral, were said to have been, "offset by a voice so rich that even her 'ooohs' come out sounding sophisticated." Songs Illinois said of the album, "I suspected that her sound would not be typical chick with guitar alt-rock. Happily I was right." In June, Mullins launched a Kickstarter for her second album, which was successfully funded. The album will be finished by late summer.

Rooftop Films is a New York based non-profit whose mission is to engage diverse communities by showing independent movies in outdoor locations, producing new films, coordinating youth media education, and renting equipment at low cost to artists.